492 
APPENDIX. 
copious and cultivated languages, spoken by immensely larger 
numbers, such as the Arabic, Hindu, Chinese, and Indo- 
Chinese. 
With regard to the extent of region over which it has tra¬ 
versed, and still prevails, it is scarcely needful to do more, in 
these remarks, than just to glance at the fact, that from Mada¬ 
gascar in the west, to Easter Island in the east, embracing 
more than half the circumference of the globe at the equator, 
and from the Sandwich Islands in the north, to the extremity of 
New Zealand in the south, being 4,000 miles of latitude, 
“ there is a manifest connexion between many of the words by 
which the inhabitants of these islands express their simple 
perceptions, and in some instances of places the most remote 
from each other, a striking affinity; insomuch, that we may 
pronounce the various dialects, in a collective sense, to form 
substantially one great language.”* u One original language,” 
observes Sir Stamford Raffles, “ seems in a very remote period 
to have pervaded the whole (Indian) Archipelago, and to have 
spread, (perhaps with the population,) towards Madagascar 
on one side, and the islands of the South Sea on the other.” 
On this subject, it may not be uninteresting to add the valuable 
opinion of the celebrated linguist, Baron Humboldt, brother 
to the illustrious traveller, as expressed by himself in a letter 
to the writer of this paper, dated Berlin, 14th of June, 1834, 
“ There is no doubt that the Malagasy belongs to the family 
of the Malayan languages, and bears the greatest affinity 
to the languages spoken in Java, Sumatra, and the whole 
Indian Archipelago. But it remains entirely enigmatical in 
what manner, and in what period, this Malayan population has 
made its way to Madagascar. Of Sanscrit words there is a 
certain number in the Malagasy language.” 
This latter observation of Baron Humboldt corresponds with 
the remark of Sir Stamford Raffles in his History of Java, 
that “ in proportion as we find any of these tribes, (viz. from 
Madagascar to the South Seas,) more highly advanced in the 
arts of civil life than others, in nearly the same proportion do 
we find the language enriched by a corresponding accession of 
Sanscrit terms, directing us at once to the source whence civi¬ 
lization flowed towards these regions.” 
The origin of this one great language is veiled in impe¬ 
netrable obscurity ; nor are there any existing data on which to 
build satisfactory conclusions respecting the era when, or the 
circumstances under which, it obtained so wide a dissemination. 
“ An attempt to ascertain which of the Polynesian dialects 
should be considered as the parent stock, from whence the 
* Marsden, ut supra, page 3. 
